The AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy maintains this blog to disseminate information relevant to astronomers who identify as women. If you have an idea for a blog post or topic, please submit to wia-blog at lists.aas.org.
The views expressed on this site are not necessarily the views of the CSWA, the AAS, its Board of Trustees, or its membership.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

If, indeed, the key
to successful leadership is influence, how do we become more influential? Is
this something we can learn? Influence was a crucial component of the lecture
on Power given by Dr. Mabel Miguel, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of North Carolina (UNC), at the “Women in Business – Transitioning to Leadership” workshop at the UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School that I attended in
May. Remember that “Power is Good” (for a refresher, please see blog
on Power), and we should all want more of it. If we define power as
the capacity or potential to influence others, then we want to increase this
capacity or potential. So think about a recent situation where you successfully
wielded your influence. Did you win an argument, change a policy, or improve a
situation? Ask yourself the following questions:

• How influential
are you?

• What is your
favorite influence technique?

• How do you
tailor your strategy to the situation?

• Did you have a
plan when you approached people?

There are several
categories of strategies/tactics that we use to influence others. These are
often referred to as the three Rs: Reason, Reciprocity, and Retribution. Here’s
a summary of each and some indications of when they might be the most effective
choice.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

An interesting article was posted recently on govexec.com by a woman who is facing her own role in the culture of "keep it quiet." As she says in the article:"At 37, I don’t think I am the only woman around my age who hashtagged #MeToo reluctantly, not because we do not all have mental ledgers full of things that angered and shamed us but because the expectation to brush and laugh off such things is so deeply ingrained that acknowledging the pain they caused somehow seems a failure."This article certainly resonated with me, and I suspect will resonate with others. Something to consider as we work to move forward to a more diverse and inclusive community. For the entire article, please go to:http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/11/what-can-we-say-each-other-work-now/142563/?oref=govexec_today_nlYou may need to click past an advertisement to access the article itself.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

In our newest series on the Women in Astronomy blog, we'd like to introduce our readers to the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. After earning a PhD in astronomy, Maria Patterson spent several years at the University of Chicago’s Center for Data Intensive Science, where she worked on cloud-based pipelines for automated analysis of NASA satellite imagery and architectures for interdisciplinary scientific clouds or “data commons”. During the initial stages for NOAA’s move to the cloud with the Big Data Project, Maria worked with the Open Commons Consortium to ensure the interests of the academic and scientific community were represented. She is currently a Research Scientist at the University of Washington, working on scientific data pipelines for managing streams of real-time data from large-scale astronomy projects, including the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Maria is passionate about open science, diversity in computing, and making everyone’s life easier through tech and was recently named a modern hidden figure in STEM in PepsiCo and 21st Century Fox’s “Search for Hidden Figures."

Describe the first time you made a personal connection with the planets and stars?

I’m not sure when the very first time was - I grew up with a constant close connection to all things space because my Dad has worked at NASA all my life. I have pictures of me when I was little, dressed up as an astronaut, and we had a huge space shuttle mural on the wall. My brother and I would go with my Dad to work, and I spent a lot of time at the visitor’s center at NASA Glenn (then Lewis) Research Center just staring at the piece of the moon and all of the exhibits on display. I remember one time in particular being in the car with my Dad on a road trip when he was telling me about gamma ray bursts, and I was mesmerized.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

In our newest series on the Women in Astronomy blog, we'd like to introduce our readers to the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. Angela Speck was named after the iconic Angela Davis, she likes bright colors, is a nerd at heart, and has wanted to be an astronaut since she was 5 years old. Originally from Yorkshire (England) she went to college in London where she was able to pursue her childhood dreams by majoring in astrophysics. After a brief stint as a r&d technician in a Lancashire company run by crazy new-age hippies, she returned to London and completed a PhD in astronomy. Now the Director of Astronomy at Mizzou (University of Missouri), she continues to research and teach astrophysics and to share her passion for all things extra-terrestrial. Her research into the nature of stardust is apt for a woman called A Speck.

Describe the first time you made a personal connection with the planets and stars?

I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut when I was five. This was the year my dad started college; I regularly lectured his (PoliSci) classmates on the heavens and why the move the way they do.